Best crowd. Best game. And, for Tyler Steenbergen and Team Canada, best finish.

Canada, which had lost 5-4 in an overtime shootout to the U.S. in last year’s world junior championship final, redeemed itself in a dramatic 3-1 win against Sweden in Friday night’s gold-medal game.

It was Canada’s second gold medal in four years — the team won in Toronto in 2015 — and the fourth straight time that the Canadians had defeated Sweden in the final.

“I’ve dreamt about this all my life,” said Steenbergen, whose first goal of the tournament was obviously his biggest. “It’s pretty surreal to score that goal and win the game for your team.”

Like last year’s back-and-forth final, this one was a nailbiter the whole way through. After a scoreless first period, the teams traded goals in the second period before Steenbergen, who was the only Canadian forward without a goal, redirected a slap pass from Conor Timmins for the winner with 1:40 remaining in the third period.

Alex Formenton put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal in the final minute.

“(Timmins) made an unbelievable pass through about two guys and at that point I knew all I had to do was get my stick on the ice and tap it in,” said Steenbergen. “After that happened, I kind of blacked out. I still don’t know what happened.”

Sweden defenceman Jesper Sellgren skates away as Team Canada celebrates their gold medal victory at the World Junior Championships on Friday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

That is was Steenbergen, who became the modern-day John Slaney, was fitting.

Passed up in his first year of draft eligibility and then selected in the fifth round by the Arizona Coyotes, the 19-year-old had been the highest scorer of any Canadian player heading into the world juniors. But for most of the two weeks, he had been nailed to the bench as the odd-man out up front.

That is, until the final two minutes of the third period.

“I had a feeling,” head coach Dominique Ducharme said of why he put Steenbergen on the ice. “I thought he was moving and doing little things. It worked out pretty well.”

You could say that about pretty much everything regarding this year’s world juniors.

For most of the two weeks, the tournament has struggled to fill even half of KeyBank Center, blaming poor weather, high-ticket prices and oversaturation of an event that was jointly held in Toronto and Montreal in 2015 and 2017 for a lack of interest. On Friday, the fans finally showed up — 17,544 of them — and they were treated to easily the most compelling game of these world juniors.

For Canada’s seven returning players, including goaltender Carter Hart, it was redemption after last year’s bitter loss to the U.S. But for the rest of the team, it was a just reward for a tournament where Canada was the most dominant of the 10 teams.

And yet, this will likely not go down as one of the better Canadian teams.

Canada, a team of second-liners that led the tournament in overall scoring, did not have a single player on the team who was drafted in the top-3 and were also without a single draft-eligible prospect. What the Canadians lacked in star talent, they more than made up for in depth.

Dillon Dube celebrates his goal against Sweden in the second period during the gold medal game on Jan. 5, 2018Kevin Hoffman/Getty Images

It was, therefore, fitting that Steenbergen, a 13th forward who received only seven minutes and 16 seconds of ice time, would score the game-winning goal.

“I think that explains everything,” said captain Dillon Dube, who had the game’s first goal. “Sounds so cliche, saying four lines deep, but it really shows that. I couldn’t be happier for any other guy to get it … we got that goal and he is a champion forever.”

Against Sweden, which had gone undefeated in the preliminary round, Canada faced its toughest opponent of the tournament. And early on, it showed.

Projected No. 1 draft pick Rasmus Dahlin, who carried the puck up the ice with the confidence of Erik Karlsson, was a handful all game. Most of the Swedes were, as Canada was outshot 16-9 in the first period and struggled at times to generate much in the way of offence.

Neither team scored in the first period, though the chances were certainly there for either team. If not for Hart, who didn’t have much to worry about in the previous three games, this one could have gone differently.

Instead, Canada struck first when Jordan Kyrou split the defence with a pass to Dube, who fought off a check and found the top corner to give Canada a 1-0 lead.

The Canadians could have easily added to that lead when Kyrou drew a holding penalty a few minutes later. But Sweden’s penalty kill, which had scored two shorthanded goals on the same power play against the U.S. in the semifinal, struck yet again courtesy of Tim Soderlund at 13:07 of the second period to make it 1-1.

In the third period, the nailbiter of a game looked like it was heading for overtime. But with time winding down, Steenbergen answered his critics and struck gold.

“I was getting a little bit of grief by the media for not scoring,” he said.

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